Banquet given on the one hundred and first anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln : by the Lincoln Centennial Association, February the twelfth, nineteen hundred and ten, the St. Nicholas Hotel, Springfield

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http://archive.org/details/banquetgivenonoOOIinc

When Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the
Presidency by the Republican National Convention
which assembled in Chicago on May 16, 1860, there
was an immediate demand for his portrait. Respond-
ing to this demand, his friends commissioned their
most competent photographer, Mr. Hesler, to visit
Mr. Lincoln at Springfield and obtain the desired
negative. Mr. Lincoln seemed surprised at the
photographer's call, and remarked that he could not
see why anyone wanted a picture of him, but he
would sit to please his friends, if they wished it.

When proofs of the sittings were submitted to
Mr. Lincoln, he selected this picture, saying: "Well,
that expresses me better than any I have seen. If it
''pleases the people, I am satisfied."

©bjeet

To properly observe throughout the Nation
the One Hundredth Anniversary of the birth of
Abraham Lincoln; to preserve to posterity the
memory of his words and works, and to stimulate
the patriotism of the youth of the land by appro-
priate annual exercises.

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"Abraham Lincoln was a man, and as a man, was the
greatest compliment that has ever been given or paid to the
human race."

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MARTINI COCKTAIL

Cotuits
Salted Almonds

Green Sea Turtle
Celery Hearts Olives

Fresh Lobster a la Newburg en Casserol

Petit Filet of Beef, Fresh Mushrooms
Potato Croquette

MARASCHINO PUNCH

Roast Philadelphia Squab au Cresson
Asparagus Tips Potatoes Parisienne

Combination Salad

Tutti Frutti Ice Cream
Assorted Cake

Camembert Cheese
Toasted Water Crackers

Coffee
Cigarettes Cigars

•{Incorporators

Hon. Melville W. Fuller,

Chief Justice United States Supreme Court.
Hon. Shelby M. Cullom,

United States Senator from Illinois.
Hon. A. J. Hopkins,

Former United States Senator from Illinois.
Hon. Joseph G. Cannon,

Speaker House of Representatives.
Hon. John P. Hand,

Chief Justice Supreme Court of Illinois.
Hon. James A. Rose,

Secretary of State of Illinois.
Hon. J. Otis Humphrey,

Judge United States District Court.
Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson,

Former Vice-President of the United States.
Hon. Richard Yates,

Former Governor of Illinois.
Hon. Horace White, of New York.

Hon. Ben. F. Caldwell,

Former Member House of Eepresentatives.
Hon. William Jayne, of Illinois,

Former Governor of Dakota.
Hon. John W. Bunn, of Illinois.
Mr. Melville E. Stone, of New York.

Officers

Hon. J. Otis Humphrey - - - President

Hon. John W. Bunn - Vice-President

Mr. Philip Barton Warren - Secretary

Mr. J. H. Holbrook .... Treasurer

1809=1910

INVOCATION: The Rt. R EV. EDWARD W. OSBORNE, D, D.

BISHOP OF SPRINGFIELD

NTRODUCTION: HONORABLE CHARLES S. DENEEN

GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS

ADDRESS: Dr. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

the tuskegee institute

Some Results of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation

uHis fame grows so steadily, so perfectly, so naturally
and so mightily, and the very fiber of his character comes
out so brilliantly as the search-light of time reveals him
from every possible point of view, that the fear among
thoughtful men is that with the lapse of centuries, his fame
may pass the boundary line allotted to flesh and blood and
become obscured by entering the realm of the mythical,
where he may be lost to the world of struggling men
among the gods and the myths which always inhabit the
past.11

Zhc Iberoes of Zimc

A poem illustrating the position of Abraham Lincoln among
the dominating personalities of history

By Nicholas Vachel, Lindsay

prologue

Sons of Lincoln! Sons of Freedom!

They lived through Freedom's second dawn;

Or, smitten with untimely arrows,

By cabins rude as the nests of sparrows,

Or wagons wandering to the sunset

On strange old plains in days long gone;

Or swept with prairie fires or floods,

They died, with their toiling all undone,

By the grey Ohio, or black Missouri,

Or wan and haunted Sangamon.

Say not, "That wild land is no more
Whose voice was in the soul of Lincoln" —
Yea, Lincoln! How he haunteth us!
Yea, unseen fires from buried breasts
Rise into the living hearts of us.
Rise into these mongrel days for us —
No other soil is haunted thus.
Can the East have such a glory —
The storied East, with its lotus wonders —
Today, when the voice of Lincoln thunders?

BAMESES II

Would that the brave Rameses, King of Time
Were throned in your souls, to raise for you
Vast immemorial dreams dark Egypt knew,
Filling these barren days with Mystery,
With Life and Death, and Immortality,
The Devouring Ages, the all-consuming Sun:
God keep us brooding on eternal things,
God make us wizard-kings.

MOSES

Yet let us raise that Egypt-nurtured prince,
Son of a Hebrew, with the dauntless scorn
And hate for bleating gods Egyptian-born,
Showing with signs to stubborn Mizraim
"God is one God, the God of Abraham,"
He who in the beginning made the Sun.
God send us Moses from his hidden grave,
God make us meek and brave.

CONFUCIUS

Would we were scholars of Confucius' time
Watching the feudal China crumbling down,
Frightening our master, shaking many a crown,
Until he made more firm the father sages,
Restoring custom from the earliest ages
With prudent sayings, golden as the Sun.
Lord, show us safe, august, established ways,
Fill us with yesterdays.

BUDDHA

Would that by Hindu magic we became
Dark monks of jeweled India long ago,
Sitting at Prince Siddartha's feet to know
The foolishness of gold and love and station,
The gospel of the Great Renunciation,
The ragged cloak, the staff, the rain and sun,
The beggar's life, with far Nirvana gleaming:
Lord, make us Buddhas, dreaming.

PHIDIAS

Would that the joy of living came today,
Even as sculptured on Athena's shrine
In sunny conclave of serene design,
Maidens and men, procession, flute and feast,
By Phidias, the ivory-hearted priest
Of beauty absolute, whose eyes the Sun
Showed goodlier forms than our desires can guess
And more of happiness.

SOCRATES

Would that we might drink, with knowledge high

and kind
The martyr-cup of Socrates the king,
Knowing right well we know not anything,
With full life done, bowing before the law,
Binding young thinkers' hearts with loyal awe
And fealty fixed as the ever-enduring sun —
God let us live, seeking the highest light,
God help us to die aright.

CAESAR

Would I might rouse the Caesar in you all,
(That which men hail as king, and bow them down)
Till you are crowned, or you refuse the crown.
Would I might wake the valor and the pride,
The Eagle soul with which he soared and died,
Entering grandly with the red-black grave.
God help us build the world, like master-men,
God help us to be brave.

CHRIST

Behold the Pharisees, proud, rich and damned,
Boasting themselves in lost Jerusalem —
Gathered a weeping woman to condemn,
All watching curiously, without a sound
The God of Mercy writing on the ground.
How did his sunburned face look in the sun,
Flushed with his Father's mighty Angel-wine?
God make us all divine.

ST. PAUL

Would I might free St. Paul, singing in chains
In your deep hearts. New heavenly love shall fight
And slay the subtle Gods of Greek delight
And cruel Roman Gods, and smite the world
With words of flame till those foul powers are

hurled
Burning to ashes in the avenging grave.
St. Paul our battle-cry! and Faith our shield,
God help us to be brave.

ST. AUGUSTINE

Yea, give the world no peace till all men kneel
Seeking with tears the grace of Christ our God.
Make us like Augustine beneath Thy rod.
Give us no other joy but Thy repentance,
Thunder our just and hereditary sentence,
Till shame and fear of Hell blot out the Sun.
Christ, help us hold Thy blood-redemption dear,
Christ, give us holy fear.

MOHAMMED

Would that on horses swifter than desire
We rode behind Mohammed 'round the zones
With swords unceasing sowing fields of bones,
Till Europe, China, India, Mizraim
Cry "God one God, the God of Abraham."
God make your host relentless as the Sun,
Each soul your spear, your banner and your slave,
God help us to be brave.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Would I might wake St. Francis in you all,
Brother of birds and trees, God's Troubadour,
Blinded with weeping for the sad and poor;
Our wealth undone, all strict Franciscan men,
Come let us chant the canticle again
Of mother earth and the enduring sun,
God make each soul the lonely leper's slave;
God make us saints, and brave.

DANTE

Would we were lean and grim, and shaken with

hate
Like Dante, fugitive, o'er-wrought with cares,
And climbing bitterly the stranger's stairs,
Yet Love, Love, Love, divining: finding still
Beyond dark Hell the penitential hill,
And blessed Beatrice beyond the grave.
Jehovah lead us through the wilderness:
God make our wandering brave.

COLUMBUS

Would that we had the fortunes of Columbus.

Sailing his caravels a trackless way,

He found a Universe, he sought Cathay.

God give such dawns as when, his venture o'er,

The sailor looked upon San Salvador.

God lead us past the setting of the sun

To Wizard Islands of august surprise;

God make our blunders wise.

MICHAELANGELO

Would I might wake in you the whirlwind soul
Of Michaelangelo, who hewed the stone
And Night and Day revealed, whose arm alone
Could draw the face of God, the titan high
Whose genius smote like lightning from the sky —
And shall he mould like dead leaves in the grave?
Nay he is in us! Let us dare and dare.
God help us to be brave.

TITIAN

Would that such hills and cities 'round us sang,
Such vistas of the actual earth and man
As kindled Titian when his life began;
Would that this latter Greek could put his gold,
Wisdom and splendor in our brushes bold
Till Greece and Venice, children of the sun,
Become our every-day, and we aspire
To colors fairer far, and glories higher.

SHAKESPEARE

Would that in body and spirit Shakespeare came
Visible emperor of the deeds of Time,
With Justice still the genius of his rhyme,
Giving each man his due, each passion grace,
Impartial as the rain from Heaven's face
Or sunshine from the heaven-enthroned sun,
Sweet Swan of Avon, come to us again,
Teach us to write, and writing, to be men.

MILTON

Would we were blind with Milton, and we sang
With him of uttermost Heaven in a new song,
Till men might see again the Angel-throng,
And newborn hopes, true to this age, would rise,
Pictures to make men weep for Paradise,
All glorious things beyond the defeated grave.
God smite us blind and give us bolder wings;
God help us to be brave.

CROMWELL

Would that the lying rulers of the world
Were brought to block for tyrannies abhorred,
Would that the sword of Cromwell and the Lord,
The sword of Joshua and Gideon,
Hewed hip and thigh the hosts of Midian.
God send that Ironside ere tomorrow's sun;
Let Gabriel and Michael with him ride,
God send the Regicide.

NAPOLEON

Would that the cold, adventurous Corsican

Woke with new hopes of glory, strong from sleep,

Instructed how to conquer and to keep

More justly, having dreamed awhile; yea, crowned

With Amaranth God-given; while the sound

Of singing continents, following the sun,

Calls freeborn men to guard Napoleon's throne

Who makes the eternal hopes of man his own.

LINCOLN

Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all,
That which is gendered in the wilderness
From lonely prairies and God's tenderness.
Imperial soul, star of a weedy stream,
Born where the ghosts of buffaloes still dream,
Whose spirit hoof-beats storm above his grave-
Above that breast of earth and prairie-fire —
Fire that freed the slave.

Epilogue

Nay, I would have you grand, and still forgot,
Hid like the stars at noon, as he who set
The Egyptian magic of man's alphabet;
Or that far Coptic, first to dream in pain
That dauntless souls cannot by death be slain-
Conquering for all men then the fearful grave.
God keep us hid, yet vaster far, than death.
God help us to be brave.

Hutootapbs

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